WP chief keeps open mind, but needs more convincing

Singapore

WORKERS' Party (WP) chief Low Thia Khiang told Parliament on Tuesday that the opposition party cannot conclude as yet if the allegations made by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's siblings are baseless or not.

"We keep our minds open, we are prepared to give the benefit of the doubt to (PM Lee). For me personally, I will not be convinced until the entire allegation is given a convincing or conclusive airing," he said on the second and final day of the Parliamentary debate on the 38 Oxley Road saga.

Mr Low, the Secretary-General of the WP and Member of Parliament for Aljunied GRC, was responding to Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong's earlier speech in which he called on Mr Low to clearly state his position on the integrity of PM Lee and the government.

Mr Low also weighed in on Mr Goh's comparison of the Oxley Road debate to the episode in 1996 when then-senior minister Lee Kuan Yew and PM Lee (who was then deputy PM) were investigated over their purchases of discounted condominium units in Nassim Jade.

It was later established that the pair's condominium purchases were above board and there was no impropriety involved.

Mr Low, who was already an MP at the time, said he was convinced of the outcome of the Nassim Jade case, but he felt the Oxley Road dispute was different.

He cited three reasons. First, the Nassim Jade case was due to a "market rumour". Second, the person at the centre of that issue, Hotel Properties Ltd founder Ong Beng Seng, made a public statement to "clear the air" before the Parliament sitting.

Lastly, the person at the centre of the Oxley Road dispute and accused of wrongdoing is both the current Prime Minister and the Secretary-General of the ruling People's Action Party (PAP).

"For this episode, there's no investigation done. It is ownself defend ownself in Parliament to the PAP MPs," he said.

"I wonder how do you want to convince me, my party and Singaporeans that this is conclusive, and it's something that we can all be convinced of entirely? Though I've said that I'm willing to give the benefit of doubt to the PM."

Mr Low said that while he understood PM Lee's difficulty in not wanting to sue his own siblings, he called on the Prime Minister to clarify a number of doubts he had on this position.

Among them was the question of whether PM Lee was worried that the PAP would be seen as having double standards, given how Mr Goh - when he was prime minister in 1997 - had sued WP member Tang Liang Hong for making a police report during the general election campaign that year.

The current wave of allegations against PM Lee, however, are "much more serious" than what Mr Tang had made.

Said Mr Low: "We're talking about upholding the legacy of Mr Lee Kuan Yew. By using family, does this not also show that blood is thicker than water? Own sibling, cannot sue. But political opponents and critics, you sue until your pants drop."

Rising to respond later, Mr Goh described Mr Low's response as "not unexpected".

"This is what is called political sophistry. And as for Tang Liang Hong, he's not my brother," he said.

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